The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-56

Chapter 56: Now This Is the Real Deal

Hao Ren took the MDT out from his pocket, wanting to smash it on the ground. Its complicated interface aside, the gadget had been a pain in the ass. He had never seen anything as out of control as this.

“What’s wrong?” Vivian was bewildered. “Taking your frustration out on it is useless.”

“Open the stone wall,” he said as he shoved the MDT back into his pocket. “The seal of the crypt is broken. Those things in there will escape to the outside world through some other opening. We must be jinxed to be trapped in here at this dead end!”

Vivian glimpsed at Hao Ren. She did not bother to figure out how the hell he knew all this. She turned to tackle the rune wall. However almost immediately, she said despairingly, “Just as expected, it won’t open.”

“Didn’t you say that thing’s thin?”

“Yes, no doubt the wall itself is very thin but, the Letta runes are sort of like an armor, reinforcing it like a city wall. Plus, the Letta runes are suppressing my powers. Lily, don’t think of using your brute strength to open it. It simply won’t work.”

The werewolf maiden was trying to dig a hole under the rune wall using her bare hands. “I’m trying to dig a passage underneath it!”

Vivian rolled her eyes at her. “Good try. However, considering the kind of power the runes possess, you got to dig at least half a kilometer straight down before you can even think of circumventing it.”

Lily stopped dead in her tracks. Her tail and ears drooped. With a dejected look in her eyes, she turned to Hao Ren. “Landlord, what are we going to do now?”

“Why am I having such bad luck?” He was left twisting in the wind. As a mortal, there was not much he could do. The fact that he could still remain calm was already something really incredible in itself. In desperation, he hit the rune wall with his fist.

Almost immediately, the sound of something dislodging came from above the wall.

Hao Ren stood closest to the wall and looked up. The Letta runes were glowing red as if the light was being squeezed out from them and they slowly came off the wall.

“Vivian, what did you do?” Hao Ren looked at the vampire maiden in shock but Vivian was as bewildered as him. “Nope… I think you did. The symbols just came off right after you hit the wall.”

Hao Ren paused for a second before a thought struck him. “According to the runes, only the descendants of Yorkford could open the crypt. Could I be a lost heir of the aristocrat? If that’s true, that means the castle and the 200 acres of land surrounding the castle are mine?”

Vivian’s face changed from shocked to deadpanned. “Looks like someone’s more optimistic than the big dog here… Let’s cut the crap and get out of here! Go, big dog!”

Before Vivian could finish her last sentence, Lily had already rushed forward and struck the wall with her fist. A great, loud boom ensued and the wall was left with a large opening. The disappearance of the runes made the wall as good as any normal rock and it was definitely much easier to handle than the charmed black rock behind them.

Behind the stone wall… or rather the stone door, was a huge underground chamber, which appeared right before their eyes.

The chamber was far bigger than the intersection area of tunnels beneath the chapel. It was of a perfect square. At the northern side of the hall was a passageway, leading to somewhere. The trio covered their noses and raced across the dust-filled chamber towards the passageway. The moment they exited the passageway, it suddenly crumbled to the ground with a loud bang.

“Holy moly… we just cheated death.” Hao Ren looked back and saw that the spot where they just stood seconds ago had vanished into a pile of rocks. He broke out in cold sweat and his heart pounded uncontrollably.

“That was probably the security mechanism of the crypt and the Letta runes were the key. If they were hacked, the passage would collapse on its own to block off the entrance.” Vivian did perceive a surge of magic power right before the passage came down. The security of the crypt made her anxious. “A rune-sealed door, charmed rock and self-collapsing passageway; what kind of thing down here needs such tight protection?”

The sound of stones grinding suddenly erupted. Hao Ren’s eyes quickly glanced around the chamber. What he saw made him tremble in fear. “I know what’s buried down here… it’s… it’s the wraiths.”

The trio did not pay much attention to the chamber itself as they entered in a hurry. Only then did they notice the chamber was not actually empty—the chamber floor was paved with countless stone slabs. Each slab was raised no more than one inch above the ground. They were arranged in such a way that they looked like floor tiles at first glance. As the slabs on the ground opened, hands in full armor emerged!

The chamber was a graveyard. Beneath the floor were tombs covered by the stone slabs.

As the stone slabs were removed, countless wraith knights in full metal body armor crawled out from beneath. They looked like dummy knights exhibited at the museum which just came to live. The jingling and rattling sounds of the heavy plated armor could clearly be heard. Astonishingly, even after hundreds of years, the metal body armors still looked shining and new as though they just rolled out from the armor factory. With his ability of enhanced vision, Hao Ren could clearly see the texture and tribal emblem on the metal plates.

The wraith knights had weapons in their hands. Some wielded long swords and war hammers while some carried short swords, and shields. The tombs were carefully arranged in a way that when the wraith knights rose up, they would immediately fall into formation.

The wraith knights outside the tunnels were supposedly of the same type—except they were buried and trapped under tons of rubble.

Hao Ren had never seen anything like it. His mind went blank but he managed to keep cool thanks to years of reinforcement from absentmindedness and carelessness. He tapped Lily’s shoulder as he spotted an exit at the other end of the hall. “Head to the exit!”

The wraith knights were not fully awake. They did not notice the trio as they rose from their tombs. Taking advantage of this window period, Lily kicked a wraith knight out of her way before hustling towards the exit.

Unfortunately, Lily had kicked over a beehive. The hobbling knights suddenly became alert. Countless blood-red eyes came to life under the head armor, illuminating the crypt in a terrifying shade of red.

“Get out of my way!” Lily was getting nervous. She grabbed the wraith knight that was charging towards her and swung it like a war hammer. The 180cm tall wraith knight was totally helpless against her brute strength and random combat tactics. It was flung around like a war hammer and a large group of wraith knights were smashed. They flew everywhere in chaos.

“The big dog truly has something up her sleeve.” Vivian looked on with satisfaction as a whirlwind of extreme cold fog formed around her. The cold mist was blood-red, expanding outwards in all directions. Nearby wraith knights were instantly frozen in a thick layer of frost. “Big dog, pull back! The crypt’s their territory. Let’s go to the surface!”

The murky underground of the palace was the home turf of the wraith knights. Such confined space had crippled Vivian’s and Lily’s ability to fight at their best. Vivian was a high-flying vampire whereas Lily was a terrifying werewolf with brute strength. Thus, an open space under the moon would make them feel more at home.

Lily brandished her improvised ‘war hammer’ to fight her way out like a ravaging tornado while Vivian emanated a freezing chill and shock wave the likes of a Bloody Mary, to ward off the heavily-armored wraith knights. Being a mortal was not going to be the right excuse at that time; Hao Ren had to to fight with all his might in order to stay alive—he was not sure whether it was just an illusion or real or simply adrenaline rush—his strength had become so unusually powerful that he could send a beefy wraith knight flying five meters away!

And so, they made it. They were finally outside the crypt.

However, there were more plated armor sounds ahead.